Eleventh Toe

by Julie Roorda

From Thanksgiving turkeys to faces on the streetcar, this collection of poetry contains vivid images which are both funny and disturbing, and which effectively convey the narrator's pecular vision to the imagination of the reader.

Genres: Poetry

150 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

Reviews

[Pooker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit I am not one who immediately heads to the poetry shelves upon being let loose in a bookstore. I don't like frou frou romantic stuff and eschew most angst and political outcries. But I love this little book. It makes me introspective in such a pleasant way. I'm going to release this book into the wild via BookCrossing, but so I can look back and remember this book with the fondness I currently have for it, I'm setting out one of its poems below:

Kindergarten Perspective

I've been trying to remember
that pre-school state of mind that sees
the branches inside lollipop trees,
cradling a nest - because I know it's there,
home to far-flying birds, romantic Vs
darting among the yellow spikes of sun
and, as if I'd been eye-level with the earth,
the green grass above the brown ground beneath.

So I asked my niece to colour on my walls
to reintroduce me to that mystery
of limbs sprouting directly from smiley
heads, flesh irridescent purple and aqua.

She did. She drew my house, and me inside,
then hid it all with swirls of deep blue sky.